On Saturday October 30th our chapter , in partnership with the City Of Suffolk and the Suffolk Clean City Commission (SCCC), held a community river cleanup from 9:00 am until Noon. Wayne Jones, Suffolk City Litter Control Coordinator, coordinated the waterborne portion of the cleanup from the Hilton Garden Inn Marina. Tim Doxey, the chapter’s Save Our Streams Committee Chairman, coordinated the land based efforts of the cleanup from the Suffolk Shopping Center parking lot on North Main Street.
32 volunteers participated in the land based effort. Teams of volunteers were assigned to specific areas that had been identified by a walk through inspection earlier in the week. Targeting areas where the most trash has been identified maximizes volunteer time and effort. The volunteers worked for three hours and managed to collect 60 bags of trash, 6 shopping carts, 5 tires and approximately 250 lbs. of miscellaneous debris. Among the volunteers were an 11 month old, a 12 year old and a high school exchange student from Italy. Actually, the 11 month old was strapped to mom and merely observed the activities. As a result of COVID-19 restrictions, this was our first cleanup since March of 2019. The chapter’s first river cleanup occurred in April of 2016 and we have conducted 7 cleanups since we adopted this section of the Nansemond River. A total of 248 volunteers have collected 523 bags of trash, 106 tires, 36 grocery carts and approximately 3,550 lbs. of miscellaneous debris since we began this project.
Many Suffolk residents don’t realize that the Nansemond River all but surrounds the North Main Street area of the city and runs along behind the businesses located on both sides of the street. Removing this trash and debris prevents it from making it’s way into the river and eventually the Chesapeake Bay and beyond. The chapter greatly appreciates the efforts of the volunteers who have spent several of their Saturday mornings picking up other people’s trash in order to keep it out of the river, protect wild life and help beautify our city.